Nanilavut: Let’s Find Them

CULTURALLY-GROUNDED RESOURCE FOR FINDING & HONOURING INUVIALUIT LOST TO TUBERCULOSIS

author & client
Beverly Lennie/Inuvialuit regional corporation

editor & publisher, Designer
jason lau/ics

Project manager
tamara voudrach/ics

corporate report publishing

editorial consultation

creative & art DIRECTION

Print & layout DESIGN

cover design

Between the 1940s and 1960s, many Inuit were taken from their communities in the North for tuberculosis treatment in southern Canada. Some never came home.

Nanilavut: Let’s Find Them is a custom publication created for the Nanilavut Initiative of the Inuvialuit Regional Corporation (IRC), based in Inuuvik, Inuvialuit Settlement Region (ISR).

The Nanilavut Initiative was created to help Inuvialuit and Inuit from across Canada locate lost loved ones who did not return home after being sent to southern hospitals during the tuberculosis epidemic (1940s to 1960s). The project helps Inuvialuit families find records and burial sites for loved ones who were taken during this time, providing research services and mental health supports for families searching for their loved ones.

Our client, Beverly Lennie, came with an idea that she wanted to create an official resource that could be used internally as well as externally with Inuvialuit community members. The only issue was that she only had with her a stack of internal corporate documents, presentations, and worksheets that she wanted to transform into this publication. Consulting with Beverly over the weeks, we created the full manuscript for the entire publication using her internal resources.

Beverly wanted the publication cover to feel smooth and human, like touching a loved one’s skin, and include debossing to reference the properly marked graves of those lost to Tuberculosis. A shallow deboss of the meaning of Nanilavut (Let’s Find Them) was chosen to be a subtle secondary visual impact, meant to be literally found and felt by the reader. On the back, is a matching deboss of the official IRC logo. All in all, the final result is a publication that is both professional and corporate, but also accessible and elegant in honouring those lost.